Tully: Should marijuana be legal? A father's conflicted view

Feb. 4, 2014

Marijuana plants recovered by police. / Greenwood Police Department

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RUSHVILLE, Ind. — I found myself in the beautiful Rush County Courthouse on Monday afternoon, looking at the stained-glass windows and oak woodwork of an architectural marvel built with Indiana limestone more than a century ago. On a whim, I crossed the marble floors to head up to the third floor and into the criminal courtroom.

A handful of people sat on wooden seats waiting for their turn in front of Judge David E. Northam. There was a woman who police said was driving with a suspended license and a man charged with a probation violation. Then, in the front row, there was a middle-aged couple from Kentucky, spending the day in rural Indiana because their son had been arrested here during a trip late last year, two days after Thanksgiving.

The couple’s 26-year-old son wore jeans and a sweatshirt and walked fast up to the defendant’s table when Judge Northam called down his case. With a thin mustache and short dark hair, he looked like an ordinary twentysomething. And when the judge asked him a series of questions, he sat up straight and answered with a “Yes, sir,” a “No, sir” and a “Thank you, sir.”

The charge was possession of marijuana, a Class A misdemeanor that can result in a fine of up to $5,000 and a year in jail. The seriousness of the moment was clear: Both of the parents nervously bounced their legs as they studied the judge, and their son barely blinked as he tried to make clear that he was taking the day and the questions seriously.

I don’t know anything about the young man or his past, other than the fact that he told the judge he was currently unemployed — a common reality these days — and was hoping for a diversion program that would keep a conviction off of his permanent record. He seemed polite and shaken.

As I drove home later, I found myself asking what good it does to saddle people like the young man at the defendant’s table with convictions that can hurt their futures and with fines they can’t afford. Then I recalled a recent conversation with a close friend who now lives in Denver. He has watched as a marijuana-for-recreation free-for-all has taken over his home state.

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If the young man in Rush County were in Colorado, he could walk into a store and buy his pot in peace — day after day. In Indiana, he now faces a conviction that will live forever online and in public records. Neither situation seems ideal.

But what’s the answer?

Listen, I’ll be honest. Growing up in a Northwest Indiana steel town in the 1980s, my high school buddies and I didn’t exactly heed Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” advice. And all these years later ,the idea of filling our state’s courtrooms and jails with potheads doesn’t make a lot of sense — financially, morally or otherwise. Moreover, the illegal drug trade is ravaging too many neighborhoods, and it’s worth asking if legalization of at least one drug could improve things by draining money from the underground economy. Polls suggest more people than ever support that idea. After all, we live in a country that for decades now has elected presidents, governors and senators who once partook in the mellow haze.

But maybe it’s the dad in me who looks at the legalization debates, and the actions of Colorado and other places, and wonders what societal good can come out of legalizing the drug for recreational use. I also wonder how many people will have their lives misdirected in horrible ways even by a drug a lot less powerful than heroin or meth.

Probably like many other parents, I heard about the sad death this weekend of Philip Seymour Hoffman and almost immediately told myself that if I do nothing else right in life, I’d better get right those damn drug and alcohol conversations with my son. Because the potential consequences of getting them wrong are too great. And even if most people can handle their pot and dabble in it without much harm, what about those who can’t?

In Rush County, the young man received a continuance so that he could beg the county prosecutor for leniency. Then he walked out of the courtroom, the likelihood of a criminal conviction still hanging over him. There doesn’t seem to be much of value in that outcome.

But what’s the alternative? Pot stores on every corner, or at least decriminalization? States collecting taxes from pot sales, and thus having a stake in their residents lighting up?

Well, you might be surprised to hear this from a guy who makes his living offering opinions, but on this issue I have no idea what the right answer is. Because they all seem wrong to me.